1. Field of the Invention
Exemplary embodiments of the present invention relate to a control method and apparatus and, more particularly, to an unlocking method for an electronic appliance wherein a user can unlock the electronic appliance through an input gesture and may invoke an application associated with the input gesture.
2. Description of the Background
With rapid advances in technology, manufacturers of mobile devices (e.g., cellular phones) are challenged to continually add greater functional capabilities in smaller form using user interface features to achieve convenience of mobility.
For instance, beyond the already advanced mobile devices and data capabilities, a device need to include other sophisticated functions, for example, a mobile terminal having a touch screen associated with functions of locking and unlocking method as an input means to prevent unintended input result in a standby mode.
The goals of greater functionalities are sometimes at odd with unlocking the mobile terminal in that a user may require extra actions such as entering a password or pressing an independent unlock key.
However, consumers expect more convenient capability in operating functions of the mobile devices, and conventional unlocking scheme may drive a user in trouble situations under circumstances the user forgets the password or needs to unlock the mobile terminal quickly. In addition, it takes a time to return to an initial menu from locking mode, the user may be facing with inconveniency and require to initialize menu options to operate a particular function. Therefore, to be competitive, the manufacturers need to address ever growing requirement for convenient and advanced unlocking function.